


Detour

by Anonymous



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-19
Updated: 2010-02-19
Packaged: 2017-10-07 09:14:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor sees River three more times before his regeneration. (Only two of them by accident.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Detour

He sees her three more times.

(Only two of them by accident.)

 

* * *

 

The first time, she's young.

He isn't expecting to see her. He usually knows better than to go anywhere near the 51st century, but it isn't all that easy to keep track of time when you're running from 18th century masquerades, unfairly accused of murdering a king or two just for conversing a bit in French.

River doesn't recognise him at first. She's too young, hasn't met enough of his future selves yet to see through the exterior, and it's just as well because for the first frantic minutes all he can do is fight the urge to run. But it's only a matter of time before she figures it out.

The bit where he blows up her university might also have something to do with it.

"Why did you do that?" She's got ashes in her hair, and when she slaps his arm it makes him think of someone else.

"Vampires," he says and smiles brightly. "Not the good kind."

That seems to pull her off-track. "What's the good kind of vampire?" she asks after a few surprised breaths.

His smile softens as he brushes ashes out of her curly hair, and then they go to get stupidly drunk on banana daiquiris (him) and Umbekian whiskey (her). She's so _young_.

And he's very, very old.

He's got somewhere to be, but running away has always seemed like a more natural choice.

 

* * *

 

The second time, he doesn't pull back when she pushes him against the door to her flat and kisses him.

"Doctor, you're a rubbish date," she says between kissing him with a single-minded eagerness and carefully navigating him through the rooms. "When you said 'picnic at Asgård', I rather thought it wouldn't include running from a giant, mythological wolf."

"You liked it!" he protests.

"Of course I did," she says. "That's not the point."

She pushes him forward and they both fall down on her bed. River moves with practiced ease and it's all going a bit fast. He doesn't quite know if dares to touch her or where to start. She stops, her eyes finding his. "What's wrong?"

He's much too old to be blushing, but that doesn't seem to stop his cheeks from suddenly becoming very warm. It's actually rather intimidating to know she's done this with him before. You'd think that would happen to him more often, but he usually keeps these things as neat as possible, at least when humans are concerned.

"Oh," she says before he's managed to formulate an answer. She smiles, hand skittering over his clavicle. "You're right. I forgot. This is my first time with this regeneration. How interesting."

That fact that she isn't remembering that until now is slightly worrying. He wonders if she's met so many of his future selves that she's stopped keeping track. It's not very good Time Lord manners to be jealous of yourself, so he settles that thought aside for now. "No," he says, stopping her hand. "The first time any regeneration."

It's mortifying to be in this position. He's a Time Lord, he should know better than to tangle up his time lines like this. River, on the other hand, seems delighted. "Oh my," she says, eyes sparkling in a way that is highly intriguing and also a little scary. "I always wondered... well, I suppose I'll take the helm then."

And she does.

He catches up eventually and there might even be a little wrestling about who gets to go on top, until River pins him down in a way that's not up for debate. She's done this with him before, and that idea has ceased to be daunting and actually seems sort of _stimulating_ all of a sudden.

"How many of me have you met?" he asks.

"You're asking how many of you I've _slept_ with, aren't you?" River moves her hips in a way that is quite evil. " Not that I'm telling you either way, but it's interesting what kind of questions you ask."

He doesn't like it when she psychoanalyses him like that. Well, he probably doesn't. Right then he doesn't mind so much because she's doing things on top of him that makes his eyes want to roll back in his head.

When she bends down to kiss him her hair falls around his face and it feels like the most natural thing in the universe. The past and the future blur together and it doesn't matter if he loves her yet, because he will and it's the same thing.

Later, she sits on top of the covers, stark naked, and scribbles in her journal. He's had plenty of time to get dressed again, but she doesn't seem to be in a hurry. 51st century people rarely are when it comes to clothes. It's very distracting.

Even more distracting is what she's writing.

"It's a bit rude to grade someone on their performance right in front of them," he mutters.

"A journal is a private thing, Doctor."

That isn't the denial he'd been hoping for.

 

* * *

 

The third time, he seeks her out by choice.

He's spent some time creating causality loops, saving planets, tweaking history, naming galaxies and marrying people, but the fun has gone out of it. Or maybe the fun has gone out of _him_.

It's summer, River takes his hand and they run.

"Excellent timing, sweetie," she says and laughs. Carnivorous plants don't have a chance against the two of them, even if they happen to lack roots and turn out to be quite mobile. Archaeologists - they appear to have a particular talent for digging up things that ought to be left buried.

She knows the TARDIS far too well, dragging him into rooms he hasn't visited in years and some he'd forgotten about entirely, undressing a little more for every door they pass. Finally she stops in the room with the Tiki Bar, and then things involving Mai Tais and naked skin happen.

It's sticky. River doesn't seem to mind.

"I've got somewhere to be," he says afterwards. The words are out of his mouth before he realises that it's true. Isn't that why he's here? There's somewhere he needs to be and he's grown tired of running from it.

"Kicking me out without even making me breakfast, isn't that typical," she says flippantly, but her smile is a little sad as she puts a pink lei around his neck. "Will I see you again? This you."

He shouldn't answer that, and she shouldn't be asking. "Yes," he says anyway.

He'll see her again, but in a different body and that changes everything. She still has that one time left. Her time line is twisted and fluxed as it wraps around his, but she looks just like the first time he saw her and he doesn't like what that means.

He runs a hand through her hair and tries to smile for her. "You'll see me one more time."


End file.
